Recharging Retirees in Retirement Communities

We Treasure our Volunteers

2025-07-15T12:42:00.006-04:00

Each year we host a Volunteer Appreciation lunch for the volunteers who serve in our retirement community. We look towards making this a memorable event that shows the volunteers just how valuable they are to us. I have shared a few other volunteer appreciation ideas with you over the years and you can still find them on the A-Z Ideas page.

This year our theme was "We Treasure Our Volunteers." We used a pirate theme for this event and it was a lot of fun for us and or the residents. We started with our decorations. I found a lot of what we used on Amazon. For the centerpieces, we used a small pirates chest with beads coming out of it. At first we thought that these were too small, but they really were just right.

Next, we used a chest that I had in storage as our focal point on our gift table. You can see it in the picture. I've looked on Amazon and found something similar if you need a chest for this or another upcoming event.

Our gifts were wine totes... but don't tell the residents in my community that! I called them loot bags and suggested that they use them to take a magazine to the doctor's office, or to bring individual bottles of water with them when they go out. Our community is just now transitioning into a BYOB community and there are a few residents who really are against it, so I was trying to avoid the "walk on the plank" by those people. Everyone really did know what the item was intended for.

We filled each bag with filler at the bottom and then individually wrapped candy at the top. This was really just done for presentation, since the gift was the bag itself. You can see from the picture that we filled the table with the chest full of bags in the center and the balance of the gifts on the sides. We used "jewels and coins" to complete the scene.

I wish we had this pirate scene setter in the room. We did have something smaller on the podium to complete the look in the room.

Our "sister-community" also did the pirate theme, but she did hers a bit differently. Instead of giving each volunteer a token gift, she arranged for really nice raffle prizes to be awarded.

Halloween Trunk Party

2019-04-04T18:41:00.000-04:00

Halloween time! It is a time of costumes, children, candy, and CARS! Trunk or Treat events for Halloween have become more popular as safe places for children to Trick or Treat. In my area, it is done mostly through churches.These are my thoughts in a nutshell....

Invite residents to participate (decorate car their car, dress in costume if they want, and hand out candy)
Show residents ideas (see below websites) on decorating their cars
Plan an outing to stores that will provide opportunities to buy items necessary (candy & decorations)
Invite the local elementary schools 1st and 2nd grade classes.(This could be any organization you want to. Boys and Girls Clubs, Women in Distress, Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts, etc.)
Families attending must RSVP to me so we can control how many attend
Families will receive a car pass for their car to enter our community
Resident's decorated cars will be spaced out in our parking lot
Halloween music will be playing in the parking lot
Time of event will be on October 31 from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm
Parking area for the guest families will be designated
Children will walk from car to car to get candy
Residents who participate will be served a "thank you" dinner at the conclusion of the event
Children will be asked to vote on their favorite car decoration.
Prize for the best decorated car

Things to think about:

Face painting
Carnival games with a Halloween-themed
Costume contest
Refreshments

Some spook-tacular websites to find more inspiration:

https://www.pinterest.com/recharging/trunk-or-treat-car-decorations/
http://thenewswheel.com/trunk-or-treat-decoration-ideas
http://stayathomemoms.about.com/od/halloween/tp/Trunk-Or-Treat-Trunk-Ideas.htm

By the time you are reading this, it will be to late to do this for this year. Take time now to make yourself a note on your August 2018 calendar to start working on this! You will be glad you planned ahead when you see it. By the way, if you community is non-profit like mine is, you will be able to write this up for your social accountability requirements.

Royal Baby Shower

2019-04-01T17:59:00.004-04:00

My first event to be include in a National magazine was our Royal Baby Shower! Check out the story written below the video to see how we celebrated the royal baby and also supported a local charity for mothers and babies!

It was also covered on CNN's Headline News and locally in the Sun Sentinel at Baby Shower for Harry and Meghan

4 Pictures 1 Word Game for the Big Screen

2016-05-30T14:31:00.004-04:00

Many of you who have played 4 Pictures 1 Word, know that this brain game is available as an app for your computer, tablet or phone for free. That is great, but it does not allow a team to play and is not audience friendly if you wanted to present it at your retirement community (or other social gathering).

After some time and effort, I made a 4 Pictures and 1 Word game slide show that you can use in your community. I did use the app for suggestions and the Internet for the pictures. I am glad to share this with you so that you will not have to spend the hours that I did in creating this game. If you get the urge to make one also, please come back to this blog page and share it. I played this last week with a group of about 25 independent living residents. We did not get through all of the slides due to time constraints..... but I was glad I did not run out of slides in my hour that I had their attention. I will be playing this with them again... and would love to have other slides to add to it for the future.

Enjoy.

Brain Games

2016-04-10T18:52:00.002-04:00

Recently we hosted our senior Olympics program. This year we added a new event called Brain Games. I found a really good link for education on the difference between brain games and brain training games. After looking at that link and reading through some other online material, I realized that there is a difference between training your brain and brain games. Be mindful (pun intended) that you are not qualified to train resident's brains unless you have gone to training for it. We, as activities professionals however, are very capable of playing brain games with those who are interested in our communities. Here is a good starting point for brain games.

Recently, I introduced Scattergories, (refill sheets) Apples to Apples, Wii Jeopardy and Wii Wheel of Fortune. They are fun games that required your brain.

I created a Name that Tune game on my own since I could not find anything that would have been appropriate for this generation to identify with. I downloaded music from the 30's and 40's to my laptop and played the beginning of the songs only. I asked the residents to identify the song title. I gave them an option to play as a group as a single. There are plenty of studies that tell us the importance of music therapy, and maybe you have a music therapist in your community. I am not suggesting that I (or you) can do their job, but I will say that this game had the residents thinking about the songs, sharing what was happening in their life at the time, and some even sang along when I played the answer to the song at the end of the program.

4 Pictures, One Word is the next game that I am creating. You will be able to find it on your phone or tablet in the app store, but it is usually a game for one person to play. I am using the examples that I find on the apps to make a PowerPoint presentation that I can show to the group. They will work as an individual or as a team.... residents' choice.... and have a set time (15 sec.) to answer the question on a piece of paper. The team or individual with the correct answers will be the winner(s).

While researching brain games, I found a great site from AARP for brain games that you can play on-line. I think that some of these games on this website would be easy to implement as a program for your CCRC residents. They could also be modified based upon the resident's ability level.

You could put 20-25 words onto the screen or black board and show it to the group for a minute. Let's call this your master list. Then give each participant a piece of paper with a group of words on it and ask them to find the 5 words that were on the master list. Give them a set time to do this and time them if you want to. Repeat this with 2 or 3 pieces of paper with other words from the master list on it, until they finish the round. Show them the master list so they can grade how they've done. Or, keep it real simple for you - though harder or the player, and show them the master list and give them a set time to write down as many words as they can recall.

The same could be done with the split words game. A little preparation ahead of time and you are all set. Stay within a category (insects, flowers, etc.), put the parts of the words out on a table, think index cards, and ask the individuals to put together as many words as they can in a set time. Time the groups/individuals if you want.

I could go on, but I think that you get the point. Take the ideas you find on the internet and find a way to make them work for your group. Soon there will be a day when we will be asking residents to bring their tablets to the activity room and go to a designated website, where they will compete with those in the room or by themselves, but be scored against others playing in the same room.

"The root of all health is in the brain. The trunk of it is in emotion. The branches and leaves are the body. The flower of health blooms when all parts work together."

- Unknown Author

Marching into Fun

2016-03-01T09:00:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it is March already? 2016 is well under way. The question for you today is, "how have you improved the offerings that you present to your community?" I believe that if you are not changing it up, or adding more to the calendar of events, that you are not as successful in your job as you can be - or should be for that matter.

Being in the field of providing recreational programs is an opportunity to enhance residents' lives. If you are not doing that, it is not fair to those who you serve. There are plenty of resources available to you so that you can be awesome at your job. Today, I will share a few new ideas that I brought to my community this year.

Wii Jeopardy and Wii Wheel of Fortune- I have people who are active Wii bowlers in the community, and I have residents who leave evening programs in order to get home to see Wheel of Fortune and/or Jeopardy on television. So, I found the Wii games on Amazon, and ordered them. I planned the activities at the same time, but different day of the week, as the existing Wii bowling game. I encouraged an audience, since most of us are sure we would never want to show off our lack of knowledge to those around us.

The games only permit 3 people to play at a time - just like on the shows, which is another reason to really push the idea of coming to be in the audience. I found both the Jeopardy and the Wheel of Fortune games to be easy to figure out. I stayed with the groups for the first few meetings to get them started, to introduce it to new comers, and to lend support when they needed it. While in the learning phase of this game, I did rotate players, so that more people could learn it. I switched people between regular Jeopardy and double Jeopardy. The only thing that I would suggest is that for final Jeopardy, that when contestants are making their final wager, that the others turn their back or cover their eyes.... if they want to be truly competitive. (Mine did not.) I do think that these two new calendar events are going to continue to be well attended and that some of the audience members will be contestants as well. (This has happened already.)

Name that Tune - I saw this game being played on a cruise ship that I was on while escorting a group recently. It seemed so simple to put together, and it was fun for me as a participant in the audience. But, I will tell you up front, that this did require more time than I thought it would o put together. There are games on-line that do what I wanted to do, but not with music from the decades that I needed. (The 20's, 30's and 40's!!)

I used music that I had and uploaded them to my laptop. You can also use Amazon Prime music or another online music provider, if you have that as an option. I listened to the first 10 - 15 seconds of each song. If the song said the title in it right away, it was not a good song to use. This is what took most of my time.
I created an answer sheet and provided it to the audience members who wanted to participate. I had groups and individuals play, so the room was set up with tables as well as rows of chairs. I had mostly groups and it worked out well.
I played the music through my auditorium sound system and "hammed it up" in between songs. I found that I need an adapter to take sound from the laptop to the microphone jack on the stage. It is not expensive and I've used it many times already.

4 Pictures 1 Word - This is another game that I saw on board the ship. Just like above, it is run from your computer. There are on line games where you can get ideas from, but I have not found one that I could simply show on the screen in the Auditorium in the manner that I want to have. So, this will be (haven't finished it yet) done on PowerPoint and played using the same answer sheet from the Name that Tune game. If you are not comfortable with creating Power Point presentations, here is a link to the PowerPoint for Dummies book.

Coloring for Adults is all the rage right now. (Here is a good article about the benefits of adult coloring from CNN.) Some of our residents are already aware of this and are coloring on their own. I decided to add it to my calendar and see what the response was. I invited residents who were currently coloring to attend with their supplies and those who are not coloring, to attend and use my supplies. I will have this in one of our lounge areas, where it is quiet, calm and more home-like then in our activity rooms that are in our club house. I will also provide outdoor seating if the day allows for it, since this lounge faces one of our lakes. There will also be soft background music available if the participants want to hear it.

I hope you will come back to my blog again soon to read about the results of the last two programs that I mentioned above. I also encourage you to comment below with a program or two that you have added or enhanced recently, so that we can all learn from each other. You may also leave comments on my Facebook page, Recharging Retirees, or on my Twitter page, Ideas4Seniors.

Loving my Job

2016-01-31T09:00:00.000-05:00

It is the month of love and today I ask you, do you love your job like you use to? After being in the field of recreation with seniors for almost 30 years, I can still say yes. But, let's be truthful, I won't say that I would say yes every day of the year.

Here are some of the reasons that I still love my job. I hope that by sharing these with you that you will take the time to consider your situation and find that you have similar reasons to be glad you are an activities director.

The appreciation of the residents
The diversity of the day's tasks
The experiences I've had that I might not have had otherwise

Traveling
Restaurants
Cultural experiences
Reasons to dress up, get in costumes
etc

Learning life lesson from worldly residents

Does and don'ts for a good marriage
How to treat your elderly parents
How to be a classy woman
The value of faith
Strength in difficult times
etc.

Professional growing opportunities through a great company
The opportunity to bring happiness to the residents and their families

Happy Valentine's Day to you! I hope that as you decorate your community you will stop and smell the roses around you and find that love is in the air.

Do's For Your Dance

2015-11-14T11:46:00.000-05:00

During December my community hosts its annual holiday gala dance. It is a semi-formal event with high-end appetizers and a first-class dinner. Every year we try to raise the bar on this special night. After working with my company for the past 18 years, it is a challenge to keep it fresh and exciting, but the evening always seems to be very well received.

With those years of experience come a few lessons that I have learned. You may not host a gala dance, but I think you will still find these points helpful in your job as activities director.

Promote the date of your event well in advance so that residents have time to plan their evening (outfit, guests, table seating arrangements)
Book a special musical talent for this night. This should not be someone your community uses on a regular basis.
At the same time, you should develop a good working relationship with the performers so that in case they must cancel on you at the last minute, they will work hard to find a replacement for themselves that is as good, as or better than they are for you.
Make sure the musicians understand the group's ability to stay on the dance floor is not as long as those of people half their age.
Remind the musician that most of the audience will not be dancing because they do not have a partner. Ask them to include line dances or a song or two that audience members can do from their chairs.
Hire dance hosts for the single ladies who want to dance.
Decorations do not have to be elaborate, unless you want them to be. Sometimes simple and understated can be viewed as classy.
If your dance is after dinner, you will not need much more food - but you must have something. A little salty and a little sweet.
You will never please all the people at a dance with the temperature of the room. Dancers will want it colder and those listening to the music will want it warmer.
Create a special feeling with the lighting in the room. Dim the lights like at a dance club
Just like at the parties that you go to, there needs to be a fun person that gets things started. Be that person or find someone else who will be!
Make a personal connection by going from table to table and sit down. "How are you enjoying the party?" is a good opener or "I haven't had a minute to talk with you lately, how are you?" Residents love to have the personal contact that only you can offer.

Key Ingredients for Successful Holidays

2015-10-09T01:00:00.000-04:00

Take time before the full craziness of the holiday schedule begins to get yourself prepared

Have a plan for the next few months, but be flexible enough to change them

Adjust your attitude from overwhelmed to “I can do this,” and see the opportunities for enhancing

your resident’s lives

Note your community’s traditions for the upcoming holidays, but find new and exciting ways to

freshen them up.

Keep your volunteers happy and get help from them and from co-workers when you are overwhelmed… and there will be days, no matter how prepared you are

Fill your life outside of work with people who you enjoy being with. Do fun stuff for yourself! Don’t stop planning when it comes to your leisure needs.

Understand that you will never please all the people all of the time. Do your best every day and have no regrets when you walk out of your community at the end of the day

Live, love, laugh, and have a happy Thanksgiving!

Scared to Say Yes?

2015-09-09T21:34:00.000-04:00

October can be scary! Not because of the ghosts and goblins that might be coming to your community to trick or treat, but because of requests from your residents who live there, when they ask you to try something out of your comfort zone. (And yes, this can happen any time of the year!)

A resident recently came to me to ask if I'd organize an outing to a local Oktoberfest. I shared my concerns for the group's safety on this trip because of the footing at the fairgrounds, the rowdiness of the crowd, and the ability to track down missing residents if they do not return to the bus at the scheduled time. My "final" decision was, no, I would not be organizing the trip for her.

After a few days, the resident came back to me and said that she would do all the research about the trip for me and bring it to me for another look. In addition to all her research, I also knew well enough that she was talking the trip up to her friends in the community so that the trip would be successful if I said yes and offered it to the community.

As much as I know that my concerns are legitimate, it is my job to figure out a way to be able to say yes to the resident's request. After seeing the information that the resident brought to me, talking it over with her while I had a more open mind, and knowing that she and her husband had attended this festival in the past, I have agreed to organize the outing. I will be sure to promote it with a note that says "good walkers welcome" or something to that affect so that residents who may have mobility issues will be fair warned.

If there is something that you are being asked to do and you want to say no to it, dig deep into yourself, get the facts and look at as an opportunity to grow. I'm looking forward to taking the group to the Oktoberfest and I know that they will have a great time there.

3 Styles of Scavenger Hunts

2015-08-02T16:04:00.004-04:00

Boy is it hot outside! If you are like me you may still be looking for indoor activities that are fun for your residents to do. This activity that I will share with you can be done for different levels of care in your retirement community. I encourage you to share it with the other activity professionals that work in those other areas within your own community.

The activity is the Scavenge Hunt. This can be done in three different ways and I will describe them below:

1) The Stay Seated Scavenger Hunt

v Ask audience to bring in items they think will be asked for. Encourage them to fill their purses, pockets, bags, etc. and bring it to the event

v Make a list of items that they could bring with them

v Include items that would be funny, that might have a story to go with them, or that people would be surprised someone would actually have. (Green Stamps anyone?)

v See the list I used

v Cut the list into pieces and place them into a basket

v Ask people to draw the item out of the basket. (This gets more people involved, even if they never have an item on your list, they are participating…..)

v Use the resident’s names as often as possible.

v Teams can be seated at a table or divide your auditorium or meeting room into sections

v After reading the item out loud, give people time to find the item – but not much time. Keep it moving!

v Count all the items and record them. I had an assistant help with this buy using a dry erase board.

v Prizes or no prizes…. It’s up to you.

2) The Semi-Seated Scavenger Hunt

v Same as above, but have each team bring the item back to the team’s table, which is at the front of the room

v You can do this with a captain who gets it from his team, or do not have a captain and each person brings their own item up to the table

v Make sure that all the items are returned after the program is over

3) A Serious Scavenger Hunt

v Look around your community and make a list of items that are unique to your community

v Include items on the list that are specific so that there is no confusion

v Gather the participants and give them the list of items that you want them to find

v Give participants a deadline to return the items to you

v This event can be done over a few days, or in a few hours

v Bringing back the items can mean taking a picture of them on your smart phone or tablet (with or without the resident in the photo with it), a note on the list of where they located the item, or asking them to return a sticker that is next to the item on the list.

v Make the prize something special so that people are more serious about playing the game independently.

v This game can be played individually or as a team

v Items can be inside or outside.

Here are a few websites that have Scavenger Hunt ideas that take you beyond what I’ve used with seniors before:

http://www.recreationtherapy.com/tx/txhunt.htm

http://www.diva-girl-parties-and-stuff.com/scavenger-hunts.html

http://icebreakerideas.com/mall-scavenger-hunt-lists-ideas/

And here are some books from Amazon:

200 Ideas for Scavenger Hunts

40 Incredible Scavenger Hunts that Really Work

52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas

Scam Education Made Easy

2015-07-03T19:37:00.003-04:00

From time to time the issue of resident's being scammed rears its ugly head in our community. The issue is brought to our administration usually by a brave resident or two. What usually happens after we see a pattern or increase in frequency is that the administration office sends out a memo reminding people not to fall into the current trap that was reported.

As Activities Director at the community, I think this is an opportunity for an activity. It is not necessarily a fun activity, but one that would educate the community about the current trends in scamming, and more importantly, how to avoid becoming a victim.

First you should understand why residents living in alone, in continuing care communities, assisted livings and nursing homes are prime targets for scammers. Take a look at the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) website. It addresses telemarketing fraud along with other types of scams that our resident's fall victim to. If you prefer to watch a documentary from Dan Rather about the scale of fraud against seniors, this is worthwhile. Many victims of fraud will not speak up because of the fear of embarrassment, or possibly losing the ability to get the "big prize." After reading about the many ways fraud takes advantage of seniors and watching this video, you will see that it is very important to provide the programming necessary to help our residents avoid these evils.

In my area we were able to find a group of local seniors who presented skits on frauds affecting seniors. It was great because the audience could see the interaction between the scammer and the victim and put themselves in the victim’s position. It was done with humor, so it was fun, in a way. Here is an article about another group that does this kind of show about seniors and scams.

If you don't have a group around your community that can perform an educational skit for your audience, you have some other options. The first is that you, the staff of the community or the residents might want to put on a skit. It would be a learning experience for those producing it as well as for those watching the final production. The other option or educating your community might be found on the Stop Fraud website that the government sponsors. There you will find lots of resources with contact information for national and state-specific sites that might provide you with speakers who will come to your community.

Based upon my experience in working with senior adults, this is a subject that you can present to your community a few times a year. I suggest that you put a new spin on it each time, with a new speaker or with a skit, to assure the residents continue to come to the program. I believe that residents can't hear about this enough. Also, encourage those who attend to bring someone else with them. A victim may be reluctant to attend for fear that she might be recognized as a victim.

Play Music More Often

2015-05-25T18:00:00.001-04:00

"Music is the soundtrack of your life," said Dick Clark. When you hear a song, if you are like me, it takes you back to that time in your life when you heard the song for the first time or to the occasion where you heard it. That is powerful. Can you imagine the music that our residents have heard in their lifetime? Just like the world in general, they have experienced so much and it is nice when we, as activities professionals, can take them back to the happier days, with the soundtracks from their lives.

So, the question I pose to you today is how do you find and present music to your residents? Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is by way of hired professional performers. That is a given in our jobs, so in this post, I'd like to focus on a few other ways that you can bring music to your residents that they will recognize and enjoy, along with theme music for your special events.

Pandora, Amazon, (search MP3 Download then search free songs) and YouTube are places that I have personally used already. In doing research for this post, I found a few helpful articles that deserve a good look if you just starting to download music. Since I am not an expert in this field, and because I want to give credit where credit is due, I will simple direct you to the articles that I found relative to our use and hope that you will click the links to read more:

The Top 14 Places to Get Free Music Downloads.
Best free apps for downloading music with an android device.
If you prefer to watch a video, here is one on how to load music or listen to it offline on an android.
How to use ITunes
How to Sync our Entire ITunes Library to Spotify

And there are online music players available for free:

So that is how to FIND the music. Now that you have it what can you do with it? Just recently, I spoke with the man who set up our sound system in the Auditorium, and asked about connecting my IPhone to the system. He said "sure, it can be done." Shortly after that, I received a new cord that has been one of the best items that I've gotten for my job! It is an adapter cable that allows me to plug in my phone to the system. I had a 50's theme party and I found music of the 50's on Pandora. I used it for background music the night of the party. And then, we had a Cinco de Mayo party and music from YouTube was played that was just right for the evening.

As I sit here and write this, I can visualize the 100's of CDs that I have in my office that I've collected over the years of being an Activities Director. Just think how much space I can save and how organized they can be if I can turn them into mp3s, I can't wait to go back to work and find the right volunteer for this job!

See, inspiration can come at any time. LOL! I hope this article helps you add more music into your community's programs. It shouldn't cost you much financially but may take some time to get a nice library of music together. I truly believe that music will add an extra touch to your programs in the future and will enhance your resident’s journey on the "sound" track of their lives.

Mentoring Lessons

2015-05-04T17:11:00.000-04:00

Being a Mentor is an important role. As I write this article, it is not yet Mother’s Day and I am writing for the month of June, which is when we celebrate Father’s Day. For many of us, our parents were our first mentors. In this article, I am sharing a mentoring encounter with you because it was a learning experience….for both of us!

The company that I work for has communities throughout the United States. At one location a young lady was recently hired to fill the position of Activities Director, but had little experience with the profession, and none with the company’s procedures. Her Executive Director had meet me and my counterpart at a neighboring sister-community, and sent her to train with us. At first my co-worker and I were considered about the time it would take away from our regular jobs, but we changed our mindset after talking it over. We felt that it was an honor to be asked, because the Executive Director could have sent the new hired Activities Director to any other community instead of to ours. We then split the time that the new hire would be in town into what worked best for us. After that, we made our lists of items that we would cover with her, and allocated it to the person who felt it was an area that they could explain the best.

In my time with this smart young lady, I found myself recalling my first few months in the profession. (That was 28 years ago already!)I found myself recalling that I was not even sure what to ask about when I wanted to set up a dinner outing or other “field trip,” as I heard a 10 year old guest in our community call the advertised trips he saw in the Lobby. As we went through our time together, I found myself saying “I’m going to tell you how I use to do it….. or intended to do it…. or when I have time to do it…..” Despite those comments, I feel confident that I showed her some important tools she could use to get off to the right start in her career as an Activities Director in the areas of organization, time management, resident satisfaction, and more.

What was surprise to me was how much I learned from the time that we spent together. realized that a system is only good when you use it. For example, if you keep a list of entertainers on your computer and have their evaluation score next to it, and it is not up to date, then it is not as valuable to you as it could be.

I realized that when files are put away and you have not referred to them in a few years, that you probably don’t need them anymore. For example, I like to keep my desk calendars from the past filed away, in case I need to see something I jotted down or what happened that day in 2002. But when I opened the cabinet to show my mentee this idea, I realized I had calendars from 18 years ago! I was so embarrassed. Who cares what happened 18 years ago? Phone numbers might not be the same anymore, and if a program worked then, it does not mean it will now.

Another big lesson for me was that sometimes going back to basics could be a smart move. For example, I use to use a worksheet to make sure that I had all the details I needed for a successful program and to refer to it the next time that I wanted to recreate the program. But, I've gotten away from that, partly because of the easy access to information on the internet. The reminder I received while mentoring this new hire was, that I can’t determine the success or failure from the information on the internet – but I could from my worksheet, if I used the system I had in place for each program (including an evaluation afterwards).

There were other lessons, or reminders, I received in the days I was training my new friend. And yes, I was there to teach her about being the best Activities Director she could be in our company, and for the residents she will serve, and I do believe that I succeeded in that. I am glad to say that I too learned from the mentoring experience. I think Phil Collins said it best when he said,

“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”

Puzzle Theme for Volunteer Appreciation

2015-04-18T17:56:00.000-04:00

Volunteers are an essential piece of retirement communities! They can be found volunteering at the reception desk when you first walk in, running an activity for the entire community to attend, folding napkins for the dining room and even taking potential residents on tours of the community for the sales and marketing department. Resident volunteers may also be board or committee members of your community's resident board. It is hard to imagine a successful community without resident volunteers.

As the activities director in my CCRC community, it is my responsibility to make sure there is a wonderful appreciation luncheon every year to thank our residents. This year we used a puzzle theme for the lunch. The idea came to us (me and my co-workers from our neighboring sister community) from the Positive Promotions catalog.

Here are the highlights of the event that connected the pieces together for a successful and meaningful afternoon:

In Advance
1) Took a photo of the entrance of our community (or it could be an focal point that is recognizable to your community) and had a puzzle made from it.

2) Put the puzzle together and then

numbered all of the pieces in the order that made the puzzle whole
created a guide with the shape of the pieces and the number of it

3) Made centerpieces for the tables.

Bought a child's floor puzzle with very large pieces and bright colors
Used puzzles that were unwanted (you could do this also and try to get all the pieces back into the right box, but I was not worried about that as I have a puzzle population problem already.) and fill in a glass vase. I used a small craft stick and hot glue gun to put it all together.
Created a personalized label on card stock from Printshop.You will need to make 2 for each centerpiece. Add a graphic so the "back" will look pretty in a different way from the front (shown here).

4) Created and printed a program for the afternoon

The Day of the Event

1) Decorate with bright colors and put centerpieces on the tables

2) Randomly placed the number puzzle pieces at every place setting with the number side up.

3) Put the guide created with the puzzle shapes and numbers out on a table. It is important that residents can reach the puzzle from all sides of the table.

4) At the point in the program that you determine is the best, call residents to the puzzle table in numeric order...... not by tables.

5) Make sure to have a patient staff person (or people) there to assist. But remember

Turn the piece right-side up (don't laugh - it was an issue for some)
Allow the resident to put in the piece when they are capable

6) Encourage residents to return to see the completed puzzle at the end of the program

Those are the highlights of this year's program. Of course there was a great meal, a few key speakers and a gift for everyone. I hope you will take time to see the 10 other posts that I have written about resident volunteers.

Mother's Day Tea

2015-03-29T17:50:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day! When planning your events for the month, you might want to consider hosting a Mother's Day Tea, but add a special twist to it with a program about High Tea. Sometimes you don't have to think too far outside the (tea) box to have a special lunch for Moms. The guests are coming to a Tea Party and enjoy drinking tea. So share the story of tea!

I will tell you that when I hosted this party, it was not my idea to start with exactly. Having the party and focusing on the tea aspect came about because I had a resident who came into my office with a problem. She wanted to host a party for a few of her friends but was concerned that she might offend someone that she would forgot to invite, and if the party got to big, she would not be able to afford to do it properly. She shared with me that she had talked about teas in the past and was going to present a "little talk" as a part of her party. After a few discussions with her, we came to the conclusion that I would run it through my department as an activity and bring her in as my "guest speaker." She agreed and left happy. (Read more about successful Resident Run Programs.)

As the Mother's Day Tea came closer, I learned that my tea-expect resident had taken the ball and ran with it! She had gotten the community very excited. She encouraged the ladies to sign up and to wear a hat when they came to the tea. She helped me select the proper teas and food that she wanted for the day so that they would tie into her talk, and she and her husband created special tea-pot shaped name tags.

The event went well overall. The room was set up with round tables, with 7 chairs per table. We had a table for name tags at the door. My resident "guest" speaker had asked a few ladies to help her at the table because the tea-pot shaped name tags were the pin-on style. They were in baskets in alphabetical order. The distribution of the name tags was the biggest hurdle because the residents came in to fast and the line became too long at the table. Next time, I would encourage the volunteers to use a longer table and lay out the name tags. They didn't want to do that when I suggested it to them. I would also make it so that they could be helped from both sides of the table. I would also relocate the ladies helping to pin on the tags away from the table. In other words, hand them the tag at the table and ask them to go to the volunteer located in another area to get assistance if they needed it. In this case, in order to expedite the long line, I invited guests to be seated and then brought the name tags to each person that didn't get one.

The meal was wonderful. The culinary department made a beautiful looking plate featuring ham salad, egg salad, chicken salad and cucumber tea sandwiches. Cucumber was a must-have as a part of the tea presentation talk. The plate was nicely garnished with strawberries, blackberries, kiwi and edible orchids. In order to reduce the need for culinary staff help, the plates were pre-set, along with clotted cream, strawberry preserves, scones and petit fours.

Besides the preset lunch plate, the tables also had a lovely center piece that I made using fresh flowers and tea pots. Our community owns a wide variety of unique tea pots. They have been given to us by residents in the past. If that is not the case in your community, determine how many you will need and ask your residents for them. You may want to gather a few extras in case so you options as to the ones you put out, and because some pots might work better for the flowers that you buy than others.

As for the program, I turned the microphone over to my resident guest speaker. She talked about the history of tea, about the cucumber sandwiches and more. If you don't have a resident who has this special interest, you may find a staff member, a person from the outside community, or even an owner of a local tea house in your area who may want to share their passion with your guests.

p.s If you'd rather host a fashion show instead, I have a good timeline for organizing one at my article about fashion shows.

Click here to find Tea Party Supplies

Love Thy Neighbor Theme Party

2015-03-01T12:52:00.000-05:00

In the retirement community where I am the activities director, we started a new program this year where residents are encouraged to nominate an employee for an employee of the month program. The concept of an employee showing the resident loving-kindness and going above and beyond their job duty is a concept that residents and employees are having a hard time understanding. It was a concept that I wanted to build on for the sake of the employee of the month program, so I created a "Love Thy Neighbor" theme party.

The idea would be that residents would have an opportunity to share what they love or appreciate about their neighbor. Here are the bullet points about how I put this party together:

Assigned each of our 5 buildings a color to wear
Decorated the Lobby (party room) with balloons for each building's color
Used Sweetheart candies to create a center piece for each buffet table and on the tables for extra color
Printed paper hearts - to coordinate with each building's colors- and that matched Sweetheart colors that had a space for the resident's name, the resident's name being honored and the reason why they are being honored.
Got painter's tape to stick the hearts onto the wall without damaging the paint
Put a table up with the paper hearts and extra pens

Overall, this theme night was easy to create. I had a resident tell me that she normally doesn't attend the theme parties becuase they are to difficult for her to participate in properly (dress up). She said that because this them was simple enough for her to participate in that she would be attending. That was good to hear.

I will say that some residents did not want to complete a heart because they feared hurting another resident's feelings. And then they were other residents who filled out multiple hearts.

I did leave the hearts on the Lobby wall for a few days after the event so that those who came to the party early would be able to read all of the comments. It is important to have a few ideas in your back pocket to share with residents who want to participate, but can't think of something on their own. Examples of this are:

Picks up grocery items for me
Watches my pet while I'm away
Collects my mail while I'm away
Visited me in the hospital
Respects m privacy
Good listener
Bakes for me
Drove me to the hospital
Etc. etc etc.

"A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble." Charles Spurgeon

Cane Fu Self Defense

2015-01-10T21:37:00.002-05:00

As an activities professional, I am always looking for a new program to add to my calendar. If it is free, that is great. If it is done by a professional, that is better. If it is something the residents can benefit from socially, emotionally, physically, professionally, or spiritually, that is what I want! And, if it can be added to the calendar as a repeating event, then it is a must. My gift to you this month is such a program. It was brought to my attention recently and has just been added to my activities calendar.

The program is called Cane-Fu. It is a program that teaches seniors how to use their cane for self-defense purposes. It includes elements of balance, stretching and defensive moves. Our local police department has a few police officers who are trained instructors in the program, and they contacted us about starting the program in our community. I know that when the residents see a uniformed officer leading the class, that it gives the class some serious clout.

The students have benefited with more self-confidence to go out into the community after taking this class. As an activities professional, the idea of reducing the resident's fear to go out of the community is a win-win situation for the resident, and for the success of the outings I plan for them.

I encourage you to look in to this program. Here are a few links to look at for more information: the first is from The Today Show and the other is from ABC's 2020 show. If it is something you think your residents would benefit from, contact your police department and see if they can assist you. If they cannot, there are items on Amazon that might be helpful to starting it yourself! Check out my Activities Director's Store to see the Cane-Fu items I found on Amazon for you.

Romantic Movies for Seniors

2015-01-02T12:40:00.000-05:00

Valentines Day Movies, that are especially right for my group of senior adults, takes some time to figure out because the residents in my community are pretty conservative and are not interested in casual sex, seeing any kind of "hanky-panky" implied, or listening to too much foul language. With this criteria in mind, I present to you a list of movies that I have shown, or would be willing to show, in my community during the month of February. They are listed in chronological order.

Casablanca (1942)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Love Story (1970)
Somewhere in Time (1980)
An Officer and A Gentleman (1982)
A Room with a View (1985)
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Emma (1996)
Titanic (1997)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Love Actually (2003)
The Notebook (2004)
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Winter's Tale (2014)

CLICK ON THE DVD TO STOP THE SLIDESHOW TO ORDER

YOUR MOVIE DIRECTLY FROM AMAZON!

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THREE THOUGHTS FOR A THOROUGH CALENDAR

2015-01-01T09:27:00.000-05:00

"Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”
- Brad Paisley

As we begin a new year, and look at the 12 months of planning ahead of us as activities professionals, it can be both overwhelming and exciting! I'd like to share a few ways that I look at this situation.

First, I review last year's successes and add the programs that I want back onto the new year's calendar. This is a good base for raising the bar for your programming because you are starting off with what was well received. Only take the best and leave the other activity ideas in the past.

Next, I take a look at ideas that are sitting on my desk in my to-do pile. These ideas include entertainers that I want to book, places that we should go to, class ideas, etc. etc. I pull out the ideas that I am really interested in and start penciling them onto my calendar where I think that they will work best. I make a note on the information according to what I penciled on my calendar. At this point, I either start making calls or leave it until later to call. If you have a good volunteer, it would be a perfect project for them to take on.

And lastly, I put in my special events. In my community I host a theme party every other month. In the past, I've had ideas that are suggested, are community favorites, or that I've created on my own. This year, I am going to try another approach. I work with a few different talent agencies, and my plan is to contact them and ask them to suggest one or two of their most unique entertainers. I will then build my theme night around the show. This is different from the way that I usually do things, and most likely the way you do them too.

I encourage you to take home your calendar book and the ideas that you have on your desk or in your file cabinet, and spend some time making a year's plan. Do it in January because after the year starts it might be tough to carve out the time to do it. Maybe you just do the first 6 months and see how it goes. Another option that has worked for me in the past is, when I am on outing such as a casino trip, I take my calendar and ideas folder with me. If my gambling money runs out and I have already been around and checked on the residents on the outing and they don’t need me, I find a quiet place to sit down and open my mind to the possibilities that I can add to my calendar. I know that when I pencil in my ideas when I am not pressured to come up with ideas, that my calendar looks better. Also, it is great to turn the page of the calendar and see that some of your work is already done for you!

Don't be "DONE" in December!

2014-12-26T15:35:00.003-05:00

This has been a heck of December as Activities Director at the retirement community where I work. This year I was more involved in the planning of the staff's holiday party than I have been in the past and I also escorted a group on a three-day trip at the beginning of the month. Between those two events and the usual Christmas chaos that takes place on the calendar, I fell behind very quickly. There were days when I came home and told my husband that I was done! Done, as in, not able to do one more thing! Done, as in, not interested in another December in my current job position. Just done!

Well, with a few good nights sleep, a paycheck that reflects all my hard work and lot of compliments from longtime residents and new to the community resident, I feel recharged. I have always been someone who has to learn lessons the hard way, and this month's experiences was no different. This is what I've learned this time.

I would be much happier in December if I would organize myself better and did not take a full week to decorate the community. I came to the realization that, even though I take a lot of pride in doing it, that I can no longer physically do it by myself. No one has ever expected me to do it alone. Staff and residents have always asked to help me. I have been selfish and kept it all to myself to do - with the exception of one tree, and with one resident's help, the past few years. I also believe that decorating the community is a gift to those who live in the community, and that they should not be putting their gift together..... so that is why I don't get more residents involved.

What I learned from working with the one resident is that I can bring out what I'd like to see on the tree and I can still put my own preference, style, etc. out into the community. After all, I am the one who buys all the decorations. I also have come to learn that I can"adjust" something if it is not the way I had envisioned it or that I might like it some one else way.

They say that if you have a goal that it is not really a goal until you have written it down or shared it with someone else. It makes you more accountable. So, I've written it down: I will share the job of decorating the community with my co-workers. And here is my simple plan. I will schedule one say at the beginning of December when everyone can help. I will have each area's decorations brought to that area - with only items that I'd like to use, and assign each person to an area.

I really think that doing this will help our management team feel more united at this time of the year, and that together we will take pride in our community. It will be wonderful next year to be able to enjoy the holidays without as much stress. I can not wait until December next year!! I will be ready.

I encourage you to look at how you can lighten your load and make a plan. Then execute it!!

Thanksgiving Gratitude

2014-11-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

An Activities Director’s Thanksgiving Gratitude

Thanksgiving is in the air! A time to give thanks and show your gratitude. Melody Beattie, Author of Codependent No More said

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

As an activities director of 27 years, and the author of the Recharging Retirees blog for 3 years, I have so much to be thankful for. For those who have been in the field as long as I have, you know that there are good times and bad times - as there is with any profession. The quote from Melody Beattie speaks of unlocking the fullness of life. At first I thought that my profession allows me to do that for the residents…. Make their life fuller and to make their house more of a home. But then, I realized that it is my job that has allowed me to live a fuller life. Below are a few things that I am grateful for this Thanksgiving when it comes to my job as Activities Director.

This job is not a 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. kind of job. I appreciate those around me for understanding that I have to work on weekends, holidays, nights and for the Super Bowl.

A good company to work for

A great community of resident volunteers who create opportunities for others to enjoy

A network of local activity directors to borrow ideas and supplies from, and to share the work load at times with

The adventures, educational opportunities,and leisure experiences that I've been exposed to

The relationships that I've had with the residents and the lessons they've shared with me

The ability to find inspiration on-line. (On my blog there is a survey that asks where you get your inspiration from. The results are that most people find them on the Internet!)

Here are a few websites, in no particular order, for which I am thankful for. I encourage you to click the links below and see what they are about. Each one has more to it than I could mention in the write-ups below. I hope they inspire you as they have at times when I needed it most!

The Activity Director's Office is a complete resource for Activity Directors. It has the best pages for monthly ideas I've seen on-line. Here is an example of their November information which features dates to celebrate, famous birthdays and more. It has been online for 10 years now!

Activity Directors Network includes links to many creative and supportive websites and offers a FREE monthly newsletter once you subscribe (no cost). There is also a chat forum and Twitter page so you can connect with others who are experiencing the same issues you may be. And, if none of that gets you going at your current job, you can find a different job in the field at their job page.

Yahoo has a few Groups that I find helpful. They are AD_Community and ActivityChat .

Not Just Bingo is especially helpful for new activity professionals working with assisted living or nursing home/health center residents. There is a fee to become a member, but you can access a wealth of information as a non-member for free.

Pinterest!! Check out Ideas for directors at retirement communities or find specific ideas about a theme party you have in mind... or might not have in mind yet. Plus soooo many more are on Pinterest! Just type in a keyword into the search box and see what others have to offer.

Easy Party Ideas and Games The link is for adult games, but you will see many different topics, such as holidays, decorations, etc. on this site also.

And of course, you can always Google for inspiration!

Being an Activities Director is something I am thankful for every day. Some would say it was my calling. As the holidays begin and the craziness of this awesome job elevates to another level, I encourage you to use the support resources offered above so that you can ride out the rough days. I assume you care about your job, and the residents you serve. You want to be the best that you can be, that is why you are here reading this now! For that too, I am thankful.

"Do not get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time." Galatians 6:9

Decorations: Peel and Stick

2014-10-11T11:27:00.004-04:00

A new statement for Halloween in our Lobby

I found these in Target. They were easy to do and cover a lot of space!

Amazon has a bunch of these wall art stickers.There are some for Halloween and and other holidays and seasons.

Library Programs for Senior Adults

2014-10-07T19:54:00.000-04:00

Let's go to the library! Boring you think? Maybe not these days!

The retirement community where I work has a wonderful relationship with our city library. They provide us with a few programs to assist the residents get the books or other material they want from the library. Let me share with you what the library does for us first, and then I will share what the library does for the community that we are able to take part in.

Once a month, we have a speaker from the library come to the community and talk about books that he thinks that the residents will enjoy. He also brings books for the residents to check out if they want to. There is a system with the library and our community where residents can check-out the books from this once a month program, in addition to ordering them over the phone, or order them on-line. The books, no matter which way a resident requests them, are returned to our front desk when the resident is finished, and are picked up once a week by the library's representative. Books being ordered are also brought to the front desk on a weekly basis.

The library also has been a great resource for me as Activities Director. I've had a request for a certain movie or educational video series, and was not able to find it through other avenues. I simply email our community's representative and request it. He then brings it to me when he comes to the community to pick up or drop off books at our front desk. It's a great help and best of all, it is free!

The most exciting part of the library in my city is what they are doing for the city at large. On Sunday afternoons they are offering free concerts, speakers, and meet the author programs. The only things they ask of us is that we go online and reserve a spot for each person attending. They have made it very simple by putting the monthly calendar online. You just go to the event, click on it, and then add your information into the reservation request. I then print out each reservation and give it to the resident attending.

I also have residents who want to go to the library and spend time there on their own. They want to be among the books, be in the quiet setting, do some research on their own, without having to use the Internet, which might be foreign to them, or for many other reasons. I've tried to schedule trips to the library for this kind of "activity," but seldom get the minimum number of participants necessary to get the bus to go from our community. With the special programs mentioned above, I am now able to offer the resident who wants to go to the library a better opportunity of having enough people to go. Instead of going to the "show" they simple go to the library and do their own thing. It has been successful.

While doing research for this article, I was surprised to see that other libraries are not offering programs like the one that is offered in my city. I did find one library who was written up and shares a video of their programs goals. It was in the Gwinnett Daily Post .

I encourage you to check out the library's website in your community, if for no other reason than being able to borrow DVDs, CDs, etc. to help you do your job better. I also encourage you to go to the library and ask them if there is a way to get your residents more involved with the library. Maybe you invite them to come to your community and do a library card registration program, or a program on how to use the Internet to reserve a book, DVD or CD and then build from there.

Yes, my friend, it is time to go back to the library! Did I mention, it's all for FREE! Don't miss the bus on this one.

Tailgate Party!

2014-09-28T14:48:00.002-04:00

Are you ready for some football?!? Take "time-out" to read the how-to's and suggestions for this fun Tailgate Party that I hosted last week in my retirement community. In our community we host a pre-dinner party with appetizers, then the residents go into dinner and have a special meal based upon the theme of the theme of the evening, followed by a show in the auditorium after dinner, again based upon the theme.

How-to's:

Tailgate food is a must. 5-layer taco dip, chips, mozzzerlla sticks, pigs in a blanket, deviled eggs, watermelon wedges, etc.
Serve food from football theme trays, bowls
Put drinks in coolers and serve them from there. (no bowl of punch here)
Decorate with pennants that are general in nature or NFL specific
Decorate with hanging football theme decorations
Decorate with Megaphones
Use a real truck if it will fit into your space to serve off of
Decorations with footballs, referees, football players, etc
Buy themed paper goods
Ask residents to wear their favorite team's apparel or colors
For entertainment, host a team trivia game
Invite non-participants of the team trivia game to be the cheerleaders. Give them pom-poms and a team to cheer for.
Be the cheerleader's leader and stir the audience up after each right answer

Suggestions:

Plan earlier than the usual time frame for this kind of party if you are going to take it the next level of excitement. This might mean contacting a high school or college at the end of the school year and getting it lined up for the following school year, because this theme night works best in September.... the beginning of football season, and that is the start of school.
Contact your local football teams. Start with the pros, then colleges, and then your area's high school.
Contact your local cheerleaders from the teams as listed above
Bring the football team's mascot
Once you know that a certain team is coming, encourage residents who don't have a team to support to wear that team's colors for the night
Offer the guests a meal if it is possible. You could invite them to eat with the residents so they can interact with each other. This would require pre-planning for success.
Offer the guests PUBLICITY for them being in your community.
If the guests are students, offer them community service hours if the students require them for graduation - and you are an eligible business (non-profit, etc.)
Show a good football movie if you'd rather instead of team trivia
Host this event before a football game that you take the community to or that you are going to watch on the big screen in your community (ie. the Super Bowl)

The Tailgating theme night was easy to do in its basic concept and the residents enjoyed it. They enjoyed dressing in their team's apparel. I watched as conversations were started over the jersey they had on with women who don't usually have much contact. It was a time of pride for some as they wore their college team's shirts.

I did learn two lessons from this program. The first is what would be clear to understand as I shared the suggestions above: plan this in advance or you might end up with just the basics! And the other is if you are promoting a team trivia contest, it is better if you tell the community that it is not a sports trivia game. I never said that it was a general trivia game...but I never told them that it was not what they assumed it would be based upon the nature of the theme night..... football.

And for more inspiration, check out my board at Pinterest!

So there is the game plan. You are ready to "set-HIKE"!! Go get 'em team!!